Latest Contact Center Best Practices

These days, customer experience is everything—in fact, 89% of today’s businesses want to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience, versus only 36% four years ago. But while the vast majority of CEOs believe they are delivering a superior customer experience, only 8% of their customers agree, indicating that there is a large disconnect between the service businesses think they are delivering, and how those on the receiving end feel. And as customer preferences continue to evolve and additional communication touch points emerge, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to stay ahead of their clients’ growing demands. Add in the complexity of maintaining compliance with the latest industry standards and adhering to strict business requirements, and managing it all can feel like a juggling act.

When it comes to “waiting on hold”, studies have shown that only 43% of consumers are willing to wait for longer than a minute, 39% for longer than five minutes, and only 18% for longer than ten—meaning that 57% of consumers will hang-up if their call is not answered by a live individual in less than 60 seconds. And failing to plan for high call volume or fix long wait times could present businesses with a number of challenges, including lost sales and reduced customer loyalty.

The contact center space is changing—so what should one expect in 2016?

1) Businesses will create a stronger alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service—and their corresponding technologies

Stronger alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service teams, and their corresponding technologies, will perhaps be one of the greatest opportunities for businesses to grow and monetize their existing relationships in the coming year. According to Aberdeen group, highly aligned organizations achieved an average of 32% year-over-year revenue growth, while their less aligned competitors saw a 7% decrease in revenue. But despite the astounding potential, only 8% of companies state they have tight alignment between sales and marketing (Forrester). With a heavy focus on understanding the entire customer journey, businesses will likely integrate more aspects of their business, from departmental data to SaaS solutions (marketing automation, CRM, contact center software), to help to ensure their employees are operating efficiently and are working with greater insight into their customer base in 2016. Check-out how our partner, Epicom, is helping organizations achieve this.